Gulf Coast State College helps shape students into entrepreneurs

“Part of that entrepreneurship is teaching kids their ideas are good,” said Mike Ross, a local entrepreneur helping guide the group Monday. “There are no bad ideas.”

ERYN DION News Herald Reporter @PCNHErynDion

PANAMA CITY — At the intersection of work and play is innovation.

That’s the “sweet spot” the Enactus team at Gulf Coast State College were hoping to keep their crop of elementary school students in during their first ever entrepreneurship summer camp, dubbed “Race to Innovation.”

Working with students in third through fifth grade, the camp will work their creative muscles while encouraging “entrepreneurial thinking” — that is, turning their ideas and things they enjoy into a potential business.

“If you enjoy your job, you’ll never work a day in your life,” said Mike Ross, a local entrepreneur helping guide the group Monday.

Ross said he’s helped start up dozens of businesses but specializes in helping people find and develop a creative outlet. Working with younger students, he said, is working with an untapped river of creativity and imagination that hasn’t yet been dampened by the “real world.” The trick, he said, is meeting them where they meet each other, and sharpening their ideas into something that is marketable.

“Part of that entrepreneurship is teaching kids their ideas are good,” he said. “There are no bad ideas.”

Their first task Monday was to come up with an idea or products and design a kite that could be used as a marketing tool, like airplanes carrying banners flying over the beach. Breaking off into pairs, the students eagerly chatted with one another, easily finding threads in common that could be used on the kite. One group, Waylon Boyette and Jayden Moss, both8-years-old, knew exactly what they wanted to advertise almost immediately — the latest update of computer game Minecraft.

“Inside, they’re very creative,” said Ross, watching Waylon sketch various Minecraft creatures. “That gets crushed when they’re older. But the more we build it up at this age, the more it can withstand it.”

Between social media and sites like Youtube, where children Waylon and Jayden’s age can have their own successful shows and make money, there are a number of outlets already available to Monday’s group to take their ideas and market them. They all have phones, and they all have access to the internet, and most importantly, Ross said, they have raw imagination. Creating the link between “work” and “fun” at this age, he said, will serve them well, and help them answer the age old question — “what are you going to be when you grow up?”

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